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Last night, Simon Harris confirmed he is ordering a statutory investigation into the scandal. And he will make it compulsory for patients to be told of the findings of any tests or checks.

The health minister added: “I also intend to bring proposals to Government next week to legislate for mandatory open disclosure for serious reportable events.”

Leo Varadkar yesterday said: “There will be an inquiry and we’re discussing the details of how that inquiry will operate. But that inquiry will establish the facts and we need to do that.

“It’ll also try to understand why these appalling communication failures happened and it’ll look at the laboratory testing and whether a different form of testing might have reduced the number of false negatives.”

The controversy has already led to the resignation of CervicalCheck’s clinical director Grainne Flannelly.

In Dublin yesterday, the HSE’s Patrick Lynch told a press conference: “There was a requirement to ensure they were informed of the review and the outcome of the review’s findings.

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“If someone comes to us for a service they must always know the information that is pertinent to them.”

The HSE has confirmed any woman who is worried can have a free repeat test carried out immediately.

Those experiencing irregular bleeding are encouraged to contact their doctor.

Dr Lynch added: “To be really clear, these are all women who have a diagnosis of cancer.

“The only reason they were in the audit was because it was triggered by the fact they had cancer and as part of an overall approach to quality improvement you review those cases through the pathway of care.

“It wasn’t that the audit found something that if they told the woman, the clinician would have prevented them getting cancer.

“These all start with the fact they had cancer and you’re reviewing their care treatment and these specific cases where the smear interpretation at the outset differed to the smear interpretation on review.”

Vicky Phelan, whose High Court case last week unravelled the scandal, said yesterday: “I knew when I took my case there were other women involved but I don’t think anyone could have imagined the magnitude of this.

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In a statement it said: “These women, their families and the country deserve answers as to how this could happen. Nothing less than a statutory inquiry can ensure the full facts now emerge.

“This is a sad and tragic episode in the history of the Irish health service that has highlighted glaring errors of judgment and a level of transparency well below what patients should expect.”

The Sinn Fein president also expressed her anger yesterday. Mary Lou McDonald said: “The full scale of the cervical screening scandal is unfolding before our eyes in a drip feed of information that is causing untold worry.

“The toxic culture of concealment and harassment pursued by the HSE and Government against women who have been wronged by this State is now in full public view.”

And the Green Party called for any inquiry to include the decision to outsource testing to a lab in the US.

Health spokesman Dr Seamus McMenamin said: “Many doctors raised concerns. These concerns were ignored and we were told this lab could provide quality assurance and clinical governance that Irish laboratories could not.”

Only 19% still trust screening services

A poll has found 60% of people asked have no faith in the national screening programme.

Only 19% of those who took part in the survey by RTE’s Tonight with Claire Byrne Live said they would still trust the Cervical Check service.

The remaining 21% said they didn’t know.

Pollsters at Amarach Research questioned 1,000 adults aged over 18 on their views yesterday.